


After

by nmnostalgiadrabbles



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Post-War, kind of a character analysis of them both, mostly - Freeform, this is a sasuke-free zone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29872440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nmnostalgiadrabbles/pseuds/nmnostalgiadrabbles
Summary: After the war, Sakura goes to work. In her spare time, she reflects on her limits and finds comfort and companionship in an old friend, however unlikely. And she hosts parties.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	After

**Author's Note:**

> first of all, disclaimer: i know a pairing like this with an age difference can be problematic, but let me say a few things first. for me to feel okay about them being together - that it wouldnt be considered grooming on kakashi's part because i do acknowledge he was her teacher and she was 12 when they met - there were some specific circumstances their relationship needed to bloom under, so let me make them clear. one, in this fic's universe, kakashi never had any feelings beyond mentorship for sakura until the events of this fic; he was never physically or romantically attracted to her, at all, before the events of this fic, and further, even in this fic, he is not sexually attracted to her, and neither she, him (i hc kakashi as asexual anyway, but w/e). and two, writing them in this fic, i was more interested in creating a relationship more about companionship than anything else, but there is some minor 'romance' as well. personally, for reasons just mentioned, i dont see them ever doing anything else than kissing occasionally.  
> i like the idea of their characters interacting because i think their personalities compliment each other well (a helluva lot better than sakura and sasuke, at least) and have a lot of potential, which i try to explore here. they're my two fav characters after all, but not exactly as kishimoto wrote them.  
> alright!  
> please enjoy, and let me know what you think!

After the war, things calmed down in the village, though not for everyone. Sakura continued taking new missions – there were still rogue shinobi, after all – but also advanced in position and, accordingly, responsibility at the hospital. She loved helping people, but someone as capable as herself was in constant demand, so it was rare that she had a night, let alone a day off, and the days of the girl who methodically conditioned and blow-dried her hair were long-gone; Sakura had other things to worry about besides split-ends and the attention of an uninterested boy.

Instead, she drained her chakra daily, whether at the hospital or in the field, and crawled onto her bed or sleeping mat with heavy, aching limbs. Often, she didn’t have anything left to soothe her own muscles, and even if she had, the tips of her fingers were both numb and burning, and discouraged her from even trying. Once, she had, and had felt something like electricity travel all throughout her hands and forearms, and it was, to say the least, unpleasant. She didn’t try again after that. 

Ino and a few other medics were improving well enough as the months and years passed, so Sakura could afford another night at home. By the time she was twenty-two, she had crow’s feet, but she also had weekends off. Saturdays she found herself tidying her apartment before and after some of the original nine came over for drinks and company, becoming something akin to tradition and one of the things she reminisced about on Mondays and looked forward to on Fridays. 

Unwillingly initially, the gatherings also took place at Kakashi’s. Naruto and most of the other boys’ apartments were too messy to house guests, and none of the girls exactly volunteered (neither had Sakura, but Naruto had made his way over after smelling something she’d been baking one Saturday morning, and within minutes Lee was there, and then Kiba, and the rest followed). They’d relocate every few weeks because once Naruto and Kakashi had come to find her sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands and tears on her cheeks from the stress of it all. Kakashi stood outside and waved the others toward his place (well, told them Sakura wasn’t hosting that night and kiba both asked and confirmed for himself and the others that that meant Kakashi was hosting) while Naruto held her and kissed her forehead. 

Sakura didn’t actually drink, preferring her kidneys to function at peak capacity, and Kakashi didn’t usually, so they often hung back or retreated to the balcony outside when things got rowdy enough. They spoke about her genin days, the war, and everything in between; about things he didn’t tell other people, even things only Gai knew, and only because he had witnessed them, though that didn’t happen right away. It happened after Sakura murmured that no matter how many people she saved, there were always the ones she didn’t. Kakashi had felt from the beginning of the Saturday night gatherings that he didn’t particularly belong; the crowd was mostly composed of his students and their peers, with the occasional appearance of Iruka or Gai or Tsunade, and he couldn’t help but imagine his own teammates and sensei in their stead. That was usually when he’d slip away for the night, or at least to the quiet of the balcony. It was after that confession - where Sakura unwillingly acknowledged her humanity - that he felt needed again. She was close with Naruto and Ino, but he had the inclination that she didn’t tell them the kind of things she told him. 

He never imaged she would share what she did with him. Sure, she had wept openly when she was twelve, and even fifteen, but that was then, and she had changed. He could see she internalized her struggles more, and if there was ever something Kakashi could relate to, it was that. When he noticed that she was thinning, he refrained from saying she should cook more for herself and less for her friends; if she’d had the time and energy, she already would have. Instead, he cooked for her. And sometimes they cooked together, whether at her place or his. He couldn’t recall the first time it happened, but eventually they started grocery shopping together. Maybe they'd run into each other at the market and walked together while pulling things from the stands, or maybe they’d just gone one morning after breakfast, because they’d begun staying over at each other’s, too. He did remember the first time that’d happened. 

The get-together was at Kakashi’s that night, and after everyone else had cleared out, he found her asleep on the folding chair outside. He brought her in and laid her on his bed and slept on the couch. She was mildly embarrassed when she woke in the morning, apologizing quite a few times, but stayed for oatmeal with cinnamon and apples. She saw his face that morning. 

Truthfully, he’d become comfortable enough with her presence that he’d pulled his mask down and opened for a spoonful before he realized why she was staring. She blushed, and maybe he did too, but there was no going back from there. He didn’t bother with it when she was around from then on, and she didn’t tell Naruto. She thought back to “blimp lips” and smiled to herself.

It was after chai and a movie late one Friday night at her place that Kakashi said he might head home. Sakura yawned, “Why not just stay?” because staying over had happened a few times before. So she brushed her teeth and took her hair down to comb, and he brushed his teeth and changed into a t-shirt that lived in the the top drawer of her dresser, and they went to bed. Sakura didn’t actually think to herself how natural it felt to wake up and see his mess of silver hair on the pillow next to hers, but she understood it. 

Weeks and months passed like that, until she was almost twenty-four, and they spent most of their time at Sakura’s. It was a little easier that way; she wasn’t forgetting things she needed in the mornings before work, and it was kind of fun to be at his only every so-often – it felt like a sleep-over, and almost made her feel like a kid again when her joints didn’t hurt. But that might have been because he rubbed her shoulders and neck, and sometimes her back, because he’d realized she more often than not didn’t have the energy to soothe them herself. She taught him how to use essential oils and where and when to apply pressure, and it was almost as if he had her hands.

"The tissues here," she said another evening while running two chakra-laced fingers up and down the underside of his right forearm from wrist to elbow. "- can you feel them? Are they tense all the time?"

He nodded. 

"Does this hurt?"

"Well, it doesn't feel good."

She pressed her thumb and forearm just below his elbow on either side.

"This?"

"Pressure." He paused, waited a few moments till she'd finished. He flexed his hand. "It's less noticeable."

She smiled. 

Another late night; Sakura was debriefing about a recent mission as his thumbs dug into her traps. He commented on the side that her hair was getting long again and asked if she would cut it before her next mission, because she’d mentioned long hair just wasn’t practical out in the field at some point. She went to nod but her muscles tightened up, so he said wouldn’t ask any more questions until he’d finished. When he had, she turned around to face him, and he kissed her forehead goodnight. Only, it didn’t feel quite complete, so in another stroke he kissed her cheek, and then her mouth. It wasn’t anything romantic, almost as if she’d kissed Naruto and he’d kissed Rin, had she got the chance to become an adult, until he pulled away and they looked at each other and did it again, and lingered. Their heads titled and lips parted just enough to fit together, his hands on either side of her neck and jaw, and her hands on his cross-legged knees, and it was if they’d finally found each other’s compliment.


End file.
